126 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



whether music could not be etched upon stone as well as upon copper. After he 

 had prepared his slab his mother asked him to make a memorandum of such 

 clothes as she proposed to send away to be washed. Not having pen, ink and 

 paper convenient he wrote the hst on the stone with the etching preparation, in- 

 tending to make a copy of it at leisure. A few days later, when about to clean 

 the stone, he wondered what effect aqua fortis would have upon it. He applied 

 the acid and in a few minutes saw the writing standing out in rehef. The next 

 step was simply to ink the stone and take off an impression. The composition of 

 which printing rollers are made was discovered by a Salopian printer. Not being 

 able to find the pelt-ball he inked the type with a piece of soft glue which had 

 fallen out of a glue pot. It was such an excellent substitute that, after mixing 

 molasses with the glue to give the mass proper consistency, the old pelt-ball was 

 entirely discarded. The shop of a Dublin tobacconist by the name of Lundy was 

 destroyed by fire. While he was gazing dolefully into the smoldering ruins he 

 noticed that his poorer neighbors were gathering the snuff from the canisters. He 

 tested the snuff for himself, and discovered that the fire had largely improved its 

 pungency aroma. It was a hint worth profiting by. He secured another shop? 

 built a lot of ovens, subjected the snuff to a heating process, gave the brand a 

 particular name and in a few years became rich through an accident which he at 

 first thought had completely ruined him. — The Age of Steel. 



IRON AND WOODEN SHIPBUILDING. 



The position of iron shipbuilding in this country, although limited, 

 virtually, to a few estabhshments on the Delaware, is by no means so trifling 

 as many newspapers would have their readers suppose. All well-equipped 

 iron ship yards are full of orders, and there is every reason to believe they are 

 doing a profitable business. An oft-repeated assertion, that large iron vessels 

 cannot be constructed in this country with both pecuniary and mechanical success, 

 is entirely unfounded. The high cost of labor and materials, as compared with 

 their price in England, can be offset by the same ability and surpassing enterprise 

 that enables our manufacturers to compete so favorably with British goods in 

 foreign markets. Yet the advantages for building iron ships, in competition with 

 the EngUsh, are somewhat different from those possessed by manufacturers of 

 articles for stationary use. Our ocean-carrying trade can be, and mostly is, done 

 in foreign bottoms, but our internal industries cannot be under foreign control — 

 at least while a protective tariff remains in force. 



As iron and steel for constructing, and steam for propelling vessels are rapid- 

 ly superseding wooden-built and wind-power-driven ships, there would seem to be 

 some good openings for ambitious capitalists and business men to start a few iron 

 shipyards in the vicinity of New York City. We are credibly informed that there 

 are now eighty iron steamships on the stocks in course of construction in Scotland^ 

 none of which are less than 3,000 tons burden, besides a great many others of 



